Why Worship on Sunday?
A Saturday vs Sunday Comparison
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3. Paul Ate at the Lord's
Table on Sunday
Using Paul’s actions at Troas to
support Sunday observance, Olson
writes, "Later Paul preached to
believers (Acts 20:7) and
believers partook of the Lord’s
Table— both on the first day of
the week."
If I were in Mr. Olson’s shoes,
advocating Sunday observance, I would
not use Acts 20:7 because
this argument always backfires when
the facts are investigated. To begin,
notice the timing of Acts 20:7. At
Creation, God established a day as a
period of time between two sunsets.
(Genesis 1; Leviticus 23:32; John 19:31)
In other words, the evening is used
to mark the beginning of the night
and the morning is used to mark the
beginning of the light. Given
God’s method for measuring time,
Paul met with the believers in Troas
as the first day of the week began,
but in our world today, the first day
of the week does not begin until
midnight. Do you think Sunday keeping
Christians should still observe
Sunday from sunset to sunset?
“On the first day of the week we
came together to break bread. Paul
spoke to the people and, because he
intended to leave [KJV: on the
morrow] the next day, kept on
talking until midnight. There were
many lamps in the upstairs room where
we were meeting.” (Acts 20:7 ,8)
Three facts stand out about this
meeting that need thoughtful
consideration:
1. Olson asserts “the believers
partook of the Lord’s
Table,” but Acts 20:7 does
not mention the believers partook of
the Lord’s Table. The text only
says they “came together to
break bread.” Breaking bread
does not necessarily mean partaking
of the Lord’s Table.
“Breaking bread” is an
biblical expression for sharing or
eating a meal. (Luke 24:35; Acts 27:35)
Notice this passage, taken from Acts
2 because it predates Acts
20 by fifteen or more
years: “Every day they [the
believers] continued to meet
together in the temple courts. They
broke bread in their homes and ate
together with glad and sincere
hearts, praising God and enjoying the
favor of all the people. And the Lord
added to their number daily those who
were being saved.” (Acts 2:46, 47, insertion
mine)
Paul’s preaching was interrupted
by an accident at midnight. Eutychus
went to sleep sitting in a window and
he fell to the ground from the third
story. The fall killed him, but the
Holy Spirit brought Eutychus to life
through Paul. After this miraculous
event occurred, Paul went back
upstairs, broke bread again and
continued talking until daylight. At
daybreak he left Troas with his
traveling associates because Paul and
his associates did not regard Sunday
as a holy day! (Acts 20:9-13)
Before we proceed, consider this
question: Let’s assume
Olson’s assertion is valid for a
moment. Does partaking of “the
Lord’s Table” on Sunday
make Sunday a holy day? Before you
answer do not forget that Jesus and
His disciples ate the very first
“Lord’s Supper” on a
Thursday night. (1 Corinthians 11:23-25) After
comparing the timing of Jesus and His
disciples with that of Paul and his
associates, which example is more
important? Does either example make
either day holy?
2. Even though Olson wants to believe
it, Acts 20:7 does
not describe a regularly called
church service. The Bible says that
Paul regularly worshiped on the
Sabbath. (Acts 16:13; 17:2; 18:4; 19:8) Acts 20:7 is a
farewell meeting, not a church
service on a holy day. The meeting
was held during Paul’s final
hours in Troas because many of the
believers suspected it could be the
last time they would see Paul.
3. Is it possible that two meals and
a farewell seminar in Troas makes
Sunday a holy day? Does any man have
the authority to cancel the law of
God, the Ten Commandments? The Bible
says that Paul left Troas at daylight
(verse 11). He continued his journey
on the first day of the week because
Sunday was not a holy day in his
mind.
The evidence in Acts 20 adds up
to a simple conclusion: Paul and his
traveling associates did not consider
the first day of the week to be a
holy day over fifteen years after
Christ’s ascension.
4. Paul had Believers Bring Their
Offerings on Sunday
Using Paul’s comments about
collecting donations, Olson writes,
"In 1 Corinthians 16:2, Paul
instructed the believers in Corinth
to bring their offerings to the Lord
on the first day of the week,
obviously because they were
assembling together on that very
day."
Olson’s assertion is not
supported by the text. Here’s
the text: “Upon the first day of
the week let every one of you lay by
him in store, as God hath prospered
him, that there be no gatherings when
I come.” (1 Corinthians 16:2)
Why did Paul make this request? Paul
admonished the believers in Corinth
to gather up whatever cash they could
each week so that when he arrived, he
could collect the cash and take it to
the suffering saints in Jerusalem.
Paul made this request because barter
was the nature and order of business
in those days. Paul did not want two
things to happen when he arrived.
First, he could not sail to Jerusalem
with donated animals and a few
thousand pounds of material goods.
Therefore, Paul wanted all donations
to be converted into cash before he
arrived.
Second, Paul did not want believers
in Corinth to wait until he arrived
and then rush out and foolishly
convert their possessions into a
lesser amount of cash because they
were in a hurry to get cash. So, Paul
wisely advised that believers start
on Sunday of each week, which was
regarded as a regular business day,
to begin the process of converting
their possessions into cash and at a
good exchange rate.
Does Paul’s request to the
believers in Corinth support Sunday
worship or the holiness of Sunday?
Not at all. In fact, Paul advocated
taking care of business on Sunday, a
regular workday.
5. People were Baptized at Pentecost
on Sunday
The Bible indicates that 3,000 people
were baptized at Pentecost. To Olson,
this somehow makes Sunday a sacred
day. Olson writes, “On this same
day [Pentecost] the first message in
the New Testament church was given (Acts 2:14), the first
converts were added to the church,
and the first believer’s
baptisms took place (Acts 2:37).”
Baptizing people on Sunday, Tuesday,
or Wednesday does not make the day
holy. A prayer meeting does not make
any day holy. Even if Jesus was
baptized on Sunday, this would not
make Sunday holy. As far as we can
tell, John the Baptist baptized
people every day of the week! (Mark
1)
6.
Early Christians Did Not Change the
Day of Worship to Sunday
Olson also recognizes there is some
political history that influenced the
observance of Sunday. Olson writes,
“But Bible-believing Christians
accept that the change from the
Sabbath (Saturday) to Sunday as the
Lord’s Day did not come by
Constantine or through an edict from
a group like the Council of Laodicea,
which others attribute to the
change."
Olson raises this argument because he
knows that mere mortals cannot change
what the Creator Himself has declared
to be holy. Men may “think”
they can change God’s set times
and laws, but no created being has
the authority to override Almighty
God.
Catholics and most Protestants
observe Sunday as a holy day, which
means most Christians accept the
holiness of Sunday without ever
investigating how and why it came to
be. There is not one text in the New
Testament associating "the
Lord's Day" with Sunday.
However, there is one text that
associates the Lord's day with the
seventh day Sabbath and it is found
in Mark 2:27, 28: “And
he said unto them, The Sabbath was
made for man, and not man for the
Sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is
Lord also of the Sabbath.”
The Romans hated the Jews so much
they finally destroyed Jerusalem in
A.D. 70. The Romans also thought the
followers of Christ were just another
sect of Jews (Christ was a Jew), so
early Christians sought to distance
themselves from the Jews in various
ways after the destruction of
Jerusalem. One technique used was to
call the seventh day "the Lord's
day" rather than call it
"the Sabbath."
The Romans called the seventh day
“Saturday,” so Roman
Christians did not want to call
Saturday “the Sabbath”
because it sounded too Jewish. When
Christians in Rome finally broke away
from observing the seventh day of the
week (around A.D. 150), they applied
the term, "the Lord's day"
to Sunday, because they said,
“Jesus came from the tomb on
that day.”
However, a Bible believing Christian
must ask, “Does the apostasy of
early Christians in Rome affect the
perpetuity of the Ten
Commandments?” Did Israel's
apostasy cancel the perpetuity of the
fourth commandment? Not according to
Jesus! (Mark 2:27, 28)
7.
Early Believers Met on Sunday
Olson writes, “In addition, the
writings of early church fathers
affirmed that believers were meeting
on Sundays as the Lord’s Day
– Barnabas, Justin Martyr,
Didache, Ignatius, Dionysius, Clement
of Alexandria, Tertullian.”
During the past two hundred years,
Protestants have used this argument
as a smoke screen to hide many
essential historical facts from
sight, but the historical facts tell
a very different story than what is
claimed.
During the first century A.D.,
Christianity spread throughout the
Roman Empire because of relentless
persecution. The Caesar’s intent
was to wipe the Jews off the face of
the Earth. Therefore, certain
compromises and transformations were
made by Jewish converts in different
places for the sake of survival.
About 120 years after Jesus ascended
and 70 years after Jerusalem had been
destroyed, Judaism’s influence
over Christianity had faded.
Meanwhile, a large number of Gentiles
in Italy had become believers in
Jesus.
As they “joined the
church.” they brought with them
their peculiar religious baggage. As
a result, Christianity in Rome
mutated into a Romanesque religion
largely free of Jewish influence. By
A.D. 150, Christians and believers in
Mithra had found a number of areas
where compromise and mutual respect
were possible.
About this time, a well-educated man
by the name of Justin Martyr became a
Christian. As a Christian apologist,
he tried to soften the hostility that
existed between Romans and Christians
and the followers of Mithra. One area
of compromise concerned religious
meetings. The followers of Mithra
worshiped on Sunday (actually they
partied on Sunday) because Sunday was
the birthday of their god.
Christians in Rome, anxious to erase
their Jewish identity, found a good
reason to celebrate with the
followers of Mithra on Sunday, since
Jesus was resurrected on Sunday!
Hence, Justin Martyr wrote:
“But Sunday is the day on which
we all hold our common assembly
because it is the first day on which
God, having wrought a change in the
darkness and matter, made the world;
and Jesus Christ our Savior on the
same day rose from the dead.”
(Justin Martyr, First Apology of
Justin Martyr, Ante-Nicean Christian
Library, (Boston 1887) p, 187 Chap
67)
The justification Martyr used for
holding a common assembly on Sunday
is interesting. First, he cited the
separation of darkness and light on
the first day of Creation as grounds
for holding a common assembly, and
then the resurrection of Jesus.
Martyr offered no Scriptural
authority for holding a common
assembly on Sunday, but his remarks
did suggest how wary Christians
divorced themselves from their Jewish
roots.
In those days, Christianity had no
“central office” or
headquarters and each geographical
location adjusted their beliefs and
doctrines as they chose. During the
last part of the second century A.D.,
Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, became
alarmed at a number of heresies that
had infiltrated the Christian
movement. He was aware of how the
Christians in Rome had begun to meet
on Sunday and abandon the seventh day
Sabbath and he spoke out against it.
He wrote:
“For He [Christ] did not make
void, but fulfilled the law [Ten
Commandments].” (Irenaeus,
Against Heresies, Vol 1 Ante-Nicean
Christian Library, (Boston, 1997) p,
471 insertions mine)
Tertullian, another early church
father, wrote extensively concerning
Christian doctrine. He, like
Irenaeus, was alarmed at the
practices of certain Christians,
especially those who lived in Rome.
In regard to the seventh day Sabbath
he wrote:
“Thus Christ did not at all
rescind the Sabbath. He kept the law
[Ten Commandments] thereof. . . He
restored to the Sabbath the works for
were proper for it.”
(Tertullian, Book IV, Chap 12, Vol 3
Ante-Nicean Christian Library,
(Boston, 1997) p, 362 insertion mine)
Considerable discussion on Sunday
observance took occurred in those
early days. Archelaus, a bishop wrote
in his disputation with Manes:
“Again as to the assertion that
the [seventh day] Sabbath has been
abolished we deny that He [Christ]
has abolished it plainly. For He
Himself was also Lord of the
Sabbath.” (Archelaus, The
Disputation with Manes, Vol 4
Ante-Nicean Christian Library,
(Boston 1887), p, 217 insertions
mine)
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